Finally
after much hyping, the greatest hits video has premiered. it took a while to
get it online, but it has definitely been worth the wait. Go find it here.
Congrats to Steve Knight for making such
a great video and to Craig Lee for hosting
the 53.3MB file. In other news, the hit counter has well surpassed the
300 mark and going up swiftly. I submitted the site to a ton of different search
engines, put links in bulletin boards I post to, and have done a ton of other
things to promote the site. It looks like it starting to pay off. I've
updated and tweaked a few things on the site with the latest update. I've tested
it with Netscape 6(I'm
still wondering what happened to Netscape 5) and I have to say the results weren't
that great. The text from the scrolling marquee on the banner is all over the
place. (it's something specific to Internet Explorer I guess) On prior versions
of Netscape it was a little
better because the text didn't show at all( which is better than having it all
over the place). Anyhow, I'll try to fix it in the future. Right now I'm more
occupied with the seasons and being with my friends.

You
remember the redirecting URL http://go.to/StevesBackyardBoxing/
? Well kiss it good bye( explosion of great magnitude) because now Steve's Backyard
Boxing has it's own domain name. From now on the site will be permanently use
the domain name: http://www.stevesbackyardboxing.org/
The cost didn't set me back that much( $68 initial fee and I think $35/year)
and I think it is definitely worth the cost. Aside from the domain name, I have
ordered a new capture card and it should be here within a couple of days which
means that the Greatest Hits Video should be on the site very soon.

I've
made some optimizations to the site, tweaked here and there. Enough to justify
the version # change. Most notable of the tweaks is the Bios
page. You can now choose what and how the pictures load on the page so it's
more 56K friendly. In other news, I will soon be dropping my @home cable modem
account so I'll have to go through another email address change( this one will
most likely will be permanent). That also means that the # of updates on the
site will decrease significantly. I'm still planning to get the "Greatest
Hits" video online around Christmas( assuming I don't get a PS2 for Christmas,
but that's highly unlikely)

There's has been much updating lately due to the fact that I'm busy with friends,
video games, family, and other such things but I do know when I will have the
Steve's Backyard Boxing's Greatest Hits Video online. After trying on what capture
card to buy for my new PC, I decided to wait a while until I get a very nice
one (hopefully by then I can afford a SCSI card w/ HD so that I won't have to
worry about dropping frames when I do high quality captures) and get a cheap
and affordable ATI TV Tuner/Capture card. The capture resolution will be the
same of the boxing movies so it won't be to bad. The video is a little over
7 minutes long so I'm expecting the file size to be around 50MB. The video was
created a while back by Steve Knight
and since then we have been trying to get it on the site( and had hopes of also
distributing it via Scour but it has gone bust lately). Look for it some where
around Christmas( as that is when I'll probably received the aforementioned
capture card.

After having the site online for a while I realized there was a few improvements
I could make for the 56K people. Most notable, at the Title of the site there
will be a option to load up the page with a banner that has non-animated GIFs.
That will do well to cut down on load times. I'm still trying to figure out
a way to cut down on load times for the Bio page (by
far the largest with like 50 something JPEGs that have to load up), but the
whole site is multimedia rich so I'm still going to have to work on that. Mr.
Barnes pointed to my attention that streaming video would be good for those
56K users who still wants to see video from the fights. Right now, I'm more
concerned with making sure the site works well than streaming video, but I'll
consider it. The only problem I have with it, is that streaming video is usually
a slide show which really isn't that impressive for watching boxing. I'll make
a test file down the road and see if it meets expectations, if so maybe streaming
video will be a reality. Finally, it seems that more and more Bios are coming
in from people. Now that the sites online, it has motivated others to email
it to me. There still are quite a few people out there who I can't reach for
soliciting info, so I'm thinking somewhere down the road I'll type and print
out the information template so that anyone can give me the info.

Finally after all has been said and done, Steve's Backyard Boxing: The Website
goes online. 9ug.com turns out to be a decent
free web space provider with plenty of space and all they ask for is a smaller
banner on the site (thank Ben Mattiuz
for giving me the info about the site). Thanks to everyone that made the site
possible and keep tuned to the site for more info about the site. Remember to
bookmark the URL http://go.to/StevesBackyardBoxing
as this site is temporary and will be moved once my Purdue space is activated.

Thanks Newton-san and me brother Alexander
Brandenburg, we now have all 49 fights offered online which take up a big
1.03GB of space. Once again, we aren't sure when the site will go online, but
the site is completed. I really hope I can find some place to serve the website
soon that is a little over 30MB in size. Only the future will tell.

I would like to say from this point on that the site is finished. Everything
that I can do with the tools I have is done. The only problem is I have no where
to put the site online because all the free online places suck. This means I'll
probably have to wait for my Purdue space to be activated which I don't know
how long that will take. Anyhow, maybe we will get a hold of the Father's
Day footage to add to the list of movies. I'll have to contact Miss
Dufton who has been rumored to be holding the coveted video tape.

I was hoping to put
the site online soon but it appears that may not happen. I looked into to free
web space places and most of them either have: Ad Banners on every page, not
enough space, or prevent you from uploading multimedia files. Bullshit is what
I say. So that leaves me with college web space. Good enough, but I haven't
gotten my Purdue account activated yet. Steve
has offered to host the site at Wabash, but I wouldn't want to bother him every
time the site will need to be updated. He might also need that space for the
"Greatest Hits Video" which hopefully be up pretty soon. And finally,
in better news, the long lost Father's Day footage (with Damn
VS Paine )may have been found. After talking to Claire Dufton, she claims
that the tape never got ported to VHS and still is on one those mini-tapes for
camcorders. If we're lucky, we should be able to get this footage soon and have
even more fights to offer.

With that said, the
site I guess you could say is done. Well the all the movies aren't offered online
yet, but we will soon be there. Also, all the bios aren't complete but I didn't
expect them to be so that really isn't a surprise. Hopefully the site will go
online soon and I will make it work. I still haven't decided what place is going
to store the online site. I'm going to need a site that offers a good amount
of web space as the files for the website are taking more space than I originally
thought. Any how, it's been two months in the making and I'm glad to say that
it's done. Hopefully, I'll be able to add more things as time goes on.
I would like to see a guestbook (I could use one those generic ones, but I'm
trying to figure how out how scripting works so that I can have more control
over the site) and a way to submit bio information via a form, but I have to
take things one step at a time.

-Shawn"If the Name Don't Rhyme It Ain't Mine" Conn

10/23/00: Spiffy!

I've added some more
reviews and will be done with most of them soon. Claire Dufton recently reviewed
my work and noticed a lot of mistakes that were made so I'll probably go back
through the site to make sure I crossed all the t's and dotted the...lower case
j's. Also added, a small bit about round girls in the Intro section.

I think it's official: there will be theme songs on each of the
bios pages. It might be a little taxing for modem users, but what the hell the
page loads up before the song. I'm still waiting for the site to have it's movies
uploaded so I'll have to wait until then. I don't want to say that's when the
site will premiere, but it might just be. We'll will see how things turn out.

Nothing significant
has really changed in the past few days. I've just replaced some the pictures
used on the site with better ones found by Steve. Also, I've fixed a few errors
and mistakes. Newton and company have
gotten my package which means that by the end the week the files should be ready
for download, which also means the site should be going up soon. I've got 18
reviews left to do for the known fights that are recorded on video. I'm debating
whether or not to review the fights that have no footage. I might do some, but
I wasn't there for all the fights so just because I fight took place doesn't
mean I'm going to review. I'll keep you informed of any future events.

A couple more additions
have been made to the website. More reviews have been thrown up. Things are
looking well. I've placed a semi-working form page for those who want to enter
into the hall of champions. I haven't got everything setup though because it
requires server extensions and stuff like that which I can't do with the website
on the hard drive. Oh well. In more exciting news, I just saw the Backyard Boxing
greatest hits video and it was spectacular. If anything will pump up people
about backyard boxing, this will. Oh yeah, this website might as well but it's
kind of shabby feeling now that I've seen the video. Anyhow, soon this site
will be a reality and it will be spectacular.

I've been testing the
website by running a server off my PC, for the most part load times aren't as
bad as I though they were going to be. One the unexpected problems I encountered
was that the red text in stencil font wouldn't show up on some people's computers.
I guess Stencil font isn't a common Windows font. Anyhow, when I noticed that
I put a Stencil Font in the download section. It's
for Windows only though, I'll try to get a MAC stencil font soon for those have
them.

Things are getting
exciting now, the website should be up pretty soon. The Banner, Title, News,
Intro, Rules, Bios, Files, are all done. The only thing that needs to be done
is for people to fill in their Bios and the finishing
touches on the fight history page (i.e. get all the
recorded fights on the list and provide synopsizes of all the fights). I finished
adding the synopsizes for all the last boxing day fights but have yet to add
ones for the rest of the fights. Also, I sent off the movies to my associates
at Purdue and hopefully they'll have the thing uploaded by the time I get the
page online.

That's right, I just finished digitizing the last boxing day. 11 fights + the
prior 39 = 50 fights! They take up a total of 1.03GB. Hopefully, I can find
enough free web space to store it all. I've added the last boxing day to the
fight history as well as all the new fighters and
pictures. There's some work to do, but I'm almost done. In other news, I'm still
on the lookout for the elusive Father's Day footage. Ted "Theodore"
Gohmann might have or might not, but rest assure I will find it.

I just added a news
archives as I soon realized the news page shouldn't be that large as it's the
first page that loads up. That will keep the load time down. Though I must admit
the Bios page take a while to load up due to the pictures
(I was thinking about changing it but the way it looks now is so perfect). Also,
the fight history page is starting to slow down with the more content I add.
I might have to change that once it gets big enough but that won't be for awhile
(when boxing resumes again).

I've just added the files section . I posted all the files
needed to view the movies so there won't be any compatibility issues. In addition,
2+2 = 4(Ha!, I was watching SNL last night)...In addition I've added another
section to the Bios page, "The Hall of the Damned." I thought it's
addition was necessary given the fact that Vancza
was banned from Steve's Backyard Boxing. I've also touched up most of the page
by going through them and checking for grammar mistakes. In other news, we may
have found a storage solution for all the movie files. I was informed by
Mr. Sayre that Purdue allows their students 488MB(I think that's what he
said) of online storage space. We know quite a few people who attend Purdue
University, I will be one them this spring. Steve also quite a few people that
have web space up at Wabash that don't use it. The idea is to split up all the
files among these people we know so that we can have all the files hosted and
we can just link them from this page. The web page should debut in a few weeks,
I'm still trying to decide which site should host the files (the whole site
as it now stands is 10MB in size). and Steve is wanting me to wait until
his secret-hush-hush-project is done and released before the web page goes on
line. Finally, I just got the VHS tape of the last boxing day from Teddy.
Unfortunately, my new PC still doesn't have a video capture card. Once I get
a hold of Lenny who has my old PC and video capture card, I'll capture the footage,
edit, and compress it for the internet.

I just finished compressing all the clips into a DiVX MPEG-4 format. I have yet to
digitize the footage from the last boxing day. The footage I have is from the
1st, 2nd, and the extravaganza day. I have 38 fights that take up 857MB of data.
Now we just have to find a site that can hold all this data for us.

The
Intro page has been updated with a huge FAQ. The rules aren't finished yet but
they are getting there. The Fight history page has most of the well-known
fights. I'm going to go back over it with a fine-toothed comb to get some the
other fights missed. I've gotten most the pages for the known fights setup. All
I need to do is add commentary and a synopsis for most of them. The Fighter's
Bios is probably the most uncompleted section as lazy people have yet to turn in
the info. 12 of the 47 people have their info filled out( a little over 25%).
Most likely the web page will go up with out all of it complete but that will be
fine. Right now, I'm more concerned about putting the site on the internet and
finding storage for all the movies. I estimate that the footage (compressed format)
will take up 10MB/min-7MB/min. I estimated just for the Easter footage alone that would
be 170MB. Right now, I have a few options...

A>Go
and get online storage lockers which can hold 50-100MB. The only problem with
this is it requires a login and password which defeats the easiness of being
able to download.

B>
Fine some one server and usurp it. It's more of a fantasy that anything, I still
haven't found and free way to get a hold of that much web space on one server.

C>Go
get a ton of free web space sites and just link the files to this website after
I've uploaded them.

I'm
not sure what I'll do yet. In other news, I found out it would be pretty easy to
register the URL www.stevesbackyardboxing.org
All I have to do is pay a $35-68/year fee. That's assuming I could have some free
online website and just have it redirect to that site. I'm not sure yet, but it
would be great to have.

The Intro page has been completed
as well as the interface. I've added a contact page
for those who want to provide some feedback on the site. Before the site gets
put on the internet I would like to see a guest book added just for the hell
of it. I added a FAQ (with a lot questions!) in the intro page as well as a
list of top injuries occurred and a small section on T-Shirts. The last thing
that needs to be done now is recording all the fights and getting all the bios.
I'll probably put the page online after we get all the fights recorded because
I know I won't get everyone's information so it's better to put it up as is
and just let the Bios trickle in as they arrive.

While there's still a lot to do, much has been accomplished and I would say I'm
past the halfway point. The title, home, and intro pages are complete. I listed
all the fights I have footage for in the fight history and I'm planning on
adding the fights that weren't recorded soon. I've gotten most of the fighters
on the bios page and most of the pictures. I would say there probably about
10-15 left who haven't been placed on the page due to the fact there were fights
I didn't see yet, most notable the first 2 boxing days and the last one which I
have yet to see. But nonetheless, things will get done.

Mostly spit shining a few things here and there. The addition of more boxers,
the addition of book marking on the fight history and Bios page. I've added more
boxers' picture, but I'm wanting people to submit their own pictures and info
instead so I might lay off of that and just catalog all the fights and all who
has boxed.

The outline has pretty much been finished. Right now I'm in the process of adding
the content, like the pictures on the banner, the fighters' pictures, the introduction
page, the addition of rules, and
more. Stay Tuned!

Well this is it Steve's Backyard Boxing: The Website (version 1.00). If it looks
crappy to you that's because it's a work in progress. Right now I'm just trying
to work out the main outline of the page's content. The next step will be
filling in more content, but first I have to get the navigation laid out.